The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthewhttp://stlukeandstmatthew.org
an Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, NYThu, 26 Mar 2015 18:51:59 +0000enhourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1Excerpts from the Rector’s Easter Sermonhttp://stlukeandstmatthew.org/excerpts-from-the-rectors-easter-sermon
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The congregation is invited to stand and dance along with the choir and acolytes.

Thurifer acting as D.J. Plays “Happy”

[Lyrics]

It might seem crazy what I’m about to say

Sunshine she’s here, you can take a break

I’m a hot air balloon that could go to space

With the air, like I don’t care baby by the way

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you know what happiness is to you

Because I’m happy

Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do

Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah,

Well, give me all you got, and don’t hold it back, yeah,

Well, I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine, yeah,

No offense to you, don’t waste your time

Here’s why

Bring me down

Can’t nothing bring me down

My level’s too high

Bring me down

Can’t nothing bring me down

I said (let me tell you now)

Bring me down

Can’t nothing bring me down

My level’s too high

Bring me down

Can’t nothing bring me down

I said

Hey, come on

Bring me down… can’t nothing…

Bring me down… my level’s too high…

Bring me down… can’t nothing…

Bring me down, I said (let me tell you now)

I’ve got that Resurrection feeling. Winter is over and spring is coming! Do you feel like a room without a roof? Is happiness the truth?

In the Easter Gospel we encounter an empty tomb where the stone has been rolled away. A room without a door, without a roof (if you will). At our church the doors were ripped away by a fire last year. In the gospel, the door to the empty tomb is pulled back by the reality of the Resurrection.

Over the course of Lent, we have been reading Richard Rohr’s book “Breathing Under Water.” Here’s a little quote from the book that seems appropriate to our celebration of the Resurrection today – if we wish for the Resurrection to make a difference in our lives in any lasting way.

“Christians are usually sincere and well-intentioned people until you get to any real issues of ego, control power, money, pleasure, and security. Then they tend to be pretty much like everybody else. We often given a bogus version of the Gospel, some fast-food religion, without any deep transformation of the self; and the result has been the spiritual disaster of “Christian” countries that tend to be as consumer-oriented, proud, warlike, racist, class conscious, and addictive as everybody else-and often more so, I’m afraid.”

When we read this in our Lenten group, many of us said “yikes!” because it seems so hauntingly true.

What Rohr is saying is that our faith tradition – indeed – our whole broader culture – falls apart when it is not rooted in any expectation of deep ongoing transformation and healing. In the church we often use a code word for deep transformation. We call it, “Resurrection.” New and abundant life. A fresh beginning rooted in who we were but no longer bound.

Is that something you want? New and abundant life. Is that something you need? A fresh beginning. Is that something every human being deserves? Yes. Yes and Yes.

If Resurrection is what we want and what we expect on Easter morning and if Resurrection is what God promises to those who believe – than why is it that most of us feel the same as we did yesterday?

Perhaps it is the case that Resurrection requires a great deal more work than we ever imagine. Jesus walked the way of the cross before he opened the way to Resurrected life, and so must we if we wish to follow him.

I thought it might be useful this morning for us to consider how to open ourselves to the freedom of the Resurrection in a deeper way this Eastertide. These are just a few ideas and they are not new.In fact, you may know them quite well.

1. We admit that we are powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable.

2. We come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.

3. We make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God.

4. We Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. We admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. We become entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. We humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.

8. We make a list of persons we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. We make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. We continue to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. We seek through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we carry this message to others, and practice these principles in all our affairs.

These ways of opening ourselves to new life through fearless engagement with the reality of our lives is what Resurrection is all about! They are as old as the Gospel itself. If they sound familiar to you that might be because you know them as the 12 steps.

Christ has opened the way to new and everlasting life. The tomb is empty.

What in your life needs to be allowed to die in order for you to live more fully into the reality of the Resurrection? How can we as a community accept the gift of new life in the midst of this broken world in which we live?

Rohr says, “How you do life is your real and final truth, not what ideas you believe.” That seems appropriate for Easter. For us Easter people, the Resurrection is not principally an idea, or a theology or even an animating story of our tradition. It is a way of life. It is something we do together in participation with God and by God’s grace.

“How you do life is your real and final truth, not what ideas you believe.”

Alleluia! Christ is Risen.

As they say in the program, “Keep coming back.” Resurrection works if you work it!

Volunteers unload donated material at the Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Brooklyn, New York shortly after Hurricane Sandy. Photo: Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew

[Episcopal News Service] The Occupy Sandy network that sprung up in the days after Hurricane Sandy devastated vast stretches of New York and New Jersey has caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which says it is looking to broaden future disaster relief efforts.

However, not everyone is taking that explanation at face value even though they say the report does a good job at outlining how well Occupy Sandy has worked.

Occupy Sandy tapped into the organization and volunteer power of Occupy Wall Street which had led a multicity protest movement centered on economic inequality just more than a year before Sandy hit. The report, titled The Resilient Social Network, calls Occupy Wall Street a “planned social movement” while it characterizes Occupy Sandy as “neither planned nor expected.”

“In the days, weeks, and months that followed, ‘Occupy Sandy’ became one of the leading humanitarian groups providing relief to survivors across New York City and New Jersey,” the report notes. “At its peak, it had grown to an estimated 60,000 volunteers – more than four times the number deployed by the American Red Cross.”

“Unlike traditional disaster response organizations, there were no appointed leaders, no bureaucracy, no regulations to follow, no pre-defined mission, charter, or strategic plan. There was just relief.”

That relief effort out of St. Luke and St. Matthew continued even after an arson fire two days before Christmas 2012 caused major damage.

“In the Diocese of Long Island, where this movement took physical root in several of our churches, we were fortunate to have a bishop who encouraged Occupy Sandy in every way possible,” the Rev. Michael Sniffen, rector of St. Luke and St. Matthew, told Episcopal News Service. “In places where our bishops and clergy gave in to fear and risk aversion in the aftermath of the storm, the work of well-intentioned, skilled neighbors was often thwarted by lack of staging and organizing space. Many of our churchyards, hallways and unused parish halls sat empty during a time when they were desperately needed.”

Long Island Bishop Lawrence Provenzano said the diocese is “very proud of its involvement with Occupy Sandy and the results.”

“This is what incarnate love looks like!,” says Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew in Brooklyn, New York on its Facebook page. The nave began being used as a distribution hub for supplies shortly after Hurricane Sandy stuck. Photo: Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew

“From a religious standpoint, this was the church at its best, an example of the Gospel in action,” he said in an e-mail to ENS. “This report is really an acknowledgment of how a cooperative effort – between the church, government entities, the private sector, and the wider community – can improve disaster response in the future. It is also an acknowledgement that cooperative decision-making, planning, and execution can be a model for success; this model, in my mind, is as ancient as the church itself.”

In addition, Sniffen said, the church communities “that truly opened themselves to aid neighbors by any means necessary also opened themselves to spiritual awakening.”

In its introduction, the report notes that Occupy Sandy was a “difficult research subject for many of the same reasons it succeeded in helping so many communities in New York and New Jersey: its membership and infrastructure are fluid, it has no elected leaders, and it conducted autonomous relief activities across a large geographic area.” Occupy Sandy is called a “humanitarian offshoot of Occupy Wall Street” in the report, whose authors also describe it as “a social movement, not so much a tangible group.”

The report at one point categorizes Occupy Sandy as an “emergent response group 2.0” of the kind that often spring up spontaneously after disaster strikes. These groups are different from “traditional response organizations,” the report notes, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the Red Cross. The “2.0” refers to the fact that groups such as Occupy Sandy used social media to publicize, organize and coordinate its work.

A small group of Occupy Wall Street began discussing the anticipated storm a week before it hit the East Coast over social media, the report says. When the storm hit on the night of Oct. 29, 2012, member of that group began share damage reports and discuss how to help and whether there was interest in beginning a relief effort.

“Seemingly out of nowhere emerged a volunteer army of young, educated, tech-savvy individuals with time and a desire to help others,” the report says.

However, the report also notes that Occupy Sandy’s “horizontal organizing structure” was not without its problems. While “there was no need to seek permission to do something” and thus people in need were served quickly, the report says “without leaders, there was less oversight” and less accountability. The accountability issue raised difficulties for some traditional response organizations in terms of their own accountability, according to the report.

Purpose of the report questionedThe authors said their “primary purpose in conducting a case study on Occupy Sandy is to provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with a basic understanding of an emerging type of grassroots relief collective so that it might enable government to work in a unity of effort with such groups when the next disaster strikes.”

However, the report also describes reluctance on the part of some Occupy Sandy participants to talk to a group connected with the Department of Homeland Security about their work. Most of the people and organizations the researchers contacted “were willing to speak quite candidly, but many respectfully declined our request,” according to the report. The report does not suggest the reason for that reluctance however, the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged, by way of more than 200 pages of heavily redacted documents, that it joined other law enforcement agencies to monitor Occupy Wall Street.

Sniffen echoed some of that concern, saying that “the DHS’s interest in the Occupy movement and Occupy Sandy in particular raises red flags regarding the freedom of communities to organize for good without being treated as suspicious.”

“That being said, the findings of this report are encouraging,” he added. “The report is clear in its analysis that Occupy Sandy was effective where larger, more bureaucratic organizations were not. The movement’s significant role in helping communities recover is now undeniable. The analysis of the ability of horizontal ad hoc groups to be effective change agents in the world should be read, marked, learned and inwardly digested by The Episcopal Church as we continue our own conversation about internal restructuring.”

The Rev. John Merz, the vicar of Church of the Ascension in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, who helped organize churches to open their facilities to respond to Sandy, also expressed concern about the DHS institute’s attention to Occupy Sandy. He noted that the organization’s website says it was created as a “dedicated, not-for-profit institute to provide the federal government with analytic capabilities to support effective counterterrorism-related decision-making and program execution.”

The department has always regarded Occupy Wall Street “as a form of active domestic terrorism albeit in the early stages of gestation” and thus it took notice when some participants “reformed around relief work with such astounding capacity,” Merz said.

Even though the study is what Merz called “appreciative,” it “is by nature defensive, given the mission of the institute and the larger mission of DHS” and is centered on the issue of “power and how it is exercised.”

“I did not see anywhere in the report analysis of how many soup cans churches or civic groups managed to donate or how many people made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches … its concern with power in this case is that it was employed so effectively by a group that it has had under surveillance and was working for structural change and justice,” he wrote in an e-mail to ENS.

While the report might be used to help non-governmental organizations and governmental aid agencies adopt new practices, Merz said, it is more likely that it will be used to “keep a thumb on social grassroots movements and networks.” He predicted that the department and the U.S. military “may use the report to incorporate some of the OWS and OS network practices into their own ‘counter terror’ practices if they would serve in curtailing the power of people to organize on a grassroots level.”

That opinion, Merz acknowledged, “may put me in the minority in the Episcopal Church who seem to think Empire is only something to be ruminated on and preached about in relation to Jesus and the Romans.”

Merz and Sniffen were both involved in Occupy Wall Street and were arrested Dec. 17, 2011 after they and retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard entered a fenced property – owned by Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street – in Duarte Square in Lower Manhattan as part of Occupy Wall Street’s “D17 Take Back the Commons” event to mark three months since the movement’s launch.

The report says other traditional response organizations were initially guarded about coordinating their work with Occupy Sandy. For example, the report describes an invitation-only telephone conference call in early November 2012 “amid the fog of the response to Superstorm Sandy” during which participants heard someone identify themselves as “this is Occupy.”

“Conversation stopped,” the report says and representatives of other relief agencies later told researchers that they wondered why Occupy Wall Street was present.

The Occupy Sandy person, whose name is not disclosed, was asked to explain his or her presence and the person replied that Occupy Sandy was “part of Occupy Wall Street but not directly associated with it,” according to the report.

“‘At that point, we all became very guarded in what we said,’ the official told us,” the report continues. “Personally, and here she said she could not speak for the group, she perceived that the uninvited caller was a protestor and remembers thinking ‘we know what we are doing here, they just do not get it.’”

The report’s authors conclude that Occupy Sandy not only eventually convinced the unnamed official that its participants “get it”; it also convinced local communities, the mainstream media and those 60,000 people who signed on as volunteers.

– The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.

]]>http://stlukeandstmatthew.org/federal-government-studies-occupy-sandy/feed0Ashes to Go or not to go, that seems to be the question…http://stlukeandstmatthew.org/ashes-to-go-or-not-to-go-that-seems-to-be-the-question
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To my fellow Presbyters in The Episcopal Church,

It’s that time of year when we will be treated to enthusiastic media reports and Facebook posts about fellow clergy “taking to the streets” on Ash Wednesday. Perhaps you are planning to do just that. You might be thinking, “What an innovative, relevant, outward-focussed, accessible, hospitable, humble ministry to undertake.”

Before you put on your gear and head out with the Lenten swat team, can we be real for a moment? I know you are chomping at the bit to “meet people where they are” at your local commuter hub, but please pause with me in the sacristy for just a second.

I was so nervous about offending you that I almost decided not to put this out there, which says plenty about the fragility of my own clerical ego. But I need to be honest with you about how weird this “Ashes to Go” thing is. It’s really quite macabre to impose a sign of mortality and repentance without the freeing experience of ritual repentance or the pronouncement of God’s absolving grace by a priest of the church. I know you prepared a nice post card with Psalm 51 and a forgiveness prayer – but that doesn’t get the job done. Also, I’m wondering if you will be at the same corner on Easter Day to proclaim the Resurrection…but let’s stick with Wednesday for now. It’s hard to make a right beginning of Lent while on your way to Target after work. If one wishes to repent, they might prefer to speak with you privately or offer a prayer of the church in a less hurried manner. Those who can’t make it to scheduled Ash Wednesday liturgies often drop by a local church between services to receive ashes from the parish priest. I have never seen someone turned away.

Do we have the practice of standing on street corners offering last rites to anonymous ambulances as they pass by? Better to go to the hospital and spend a little time, no? I understand that God’s grace works in mysterious ways. The saints of God are doing their thing in schools, or in shops or at tea and all that – but why are we stalking people with ashes as they go about their business? Why are we turning Ash Wednesday into freaky Friday? Every morning is still Easter morning, right? Or did I lose the plot at some point?

I am totally with you on taking church to the streets. Let’s do it! Our common life as Episcopalians is grounded in the Eucharist and rooted in resurrection. Why don’t we begin by offering the body and blood of Christ outside the sanctuary? How about washing and massaging the feet of weary commuters waiting for the bus? Let’s offer anointing with holy oil for healing on the sidewalks. Why don’t we venerate the feet of the homeless and outcast on Good Friday at a local shelter? How many baptisms have we conducted in a public park lately? Why don’t we set up hours to hear confessions in local bars and offer God’s forgiveness?

Why start with ashes? Ashes rather than water, or bread, or wine, or oil is a strange place to begin from the perspective of ritology. Religious signs and symbols operate differently outside their ritual contexts. Are we not worried about re-defining ourselves as “people of the ash?” Just to put my money where my mouth is…I presided at a Eucharist in the Hyatt parking lot while I was chaplain to Integrity at General Convention in 2012. During the Eucharist, a young adult was baptized in the hotel fountain while cars and pedestrians and pigeons passed by. It seemed to work. I’m serious about these “hit the streets” ideas and many of my colleagues and I have tried them. The streets are a great place for the rites of the church. Preaching in the streets has transformed my understanding of preaching dramatically as a preacher and a teacher of preaching- so I’m not just a spokesman, I’m a client.

My concern is this: I fear that Ashes to Go is a way for cloistered clergy and baby boomer bishops to check the box of relevance while presiding over an institution that is not “meeting people where they are” in ways that really matter. Ashes to Go risks nothing, it costs us nothing, and it bears witness to a wimpy church. Please prove me wrong on this point.

I intend to check this out with my therapist and spiritual director, but I have a hunch that most of us who vest in alb and stole and stand for a few hours on the sidewalk with a dirty thumb are desperate to feel that we (and by extension the church) have something real to offer. We do have something to offer and its Jesus Christ. Living out our vocations as priests is often grueling and thankless, even in the midst of many blessings. Let’s be honest about that and help each other to really walk in the ways of Jesus Christ, rather than participating in empty ritualism. If you have a robust street ministry, then by all means – ashes should be a part of it. But too many of us in the ashes only category will congratulate ourselves on having participated in a radically welcoming street ministry this Ash Wednesday. What will we really have accomplished in Christ’s name? Who will really have been served?

Why don’t we take our ministry to the streets for real?! Let’s spend more time at the county jail. Let’s join local protests against inhumane corporate practices. Let’s deal with greedy landlords. Let’s go to city council meetings and hold the feet of elected officials to the fire. You know, Jesus stuff. Amos said something about God taking no delight in our solemn assemblies. Let’s be real about the ongoing need for the institutional church to publicly repent of its apathy, survivalism and indifference to human suffering.

Let’s agree that if Ashes to Go is the only liturgical street performance we do, it falls a bit short of the Great Commission. Under scrutiny, it appears to be a disconnected feel-good give-away ministry in which we clergy self-importantly smudge our neighbors and go home satisfied. Hey, we reminded each other of our common mortality. News Flash: People are well aware of their mortality. They are suffering. It would be better for us to go out and glitter bomb people while shouting, “God loves you!” Then we could dance embarrassingly down the road to the next missional endeavor. I ask you, my colleagues, why not give the people a garland instead of ashes? Why not give people reason to believe that the church is a very present help in time of trouble? Not notionally. Really and truly. We do that by hitting the streets genuinely, not gesticulating oddly with a crystal jar of ashes on the light rail.

When the Christian people of God are moved by the Holy Spirit to remember that they are dust and begin again, they will find their way to a local church. Let’s not get our ashy hands all up in their business and tell ourselves it’s an act of evangelistic kindness. We’re Episcopalians. Let’s live as if we are a resurrected people. Lets serve our neighbors faithfully, selflessly and humbly every day. Then folks will know by our actions that, “All of us go down to the dust; yet even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!”

Ash Wednesday services in my parish are at 7am, noon and 7pm. If you find yourself in the neighborhood, come join us. You’ll be very welcome.

Your brother on the road,
The Rev. Michael Sniffen
Rector of The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew, Brooklyn

Advent is a season of expectation and wonder in which we prepare for God to be born among us anew at Christmas.
Our life together at The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew has been full this past year. We have been caught up in God’s whirlwind in profound and transformational ways. On the heels of major hurricane relief efforts with Occupy Sandy, an arsonist set fire to our beloved church on the eve of our Christmas celebrations. We were all perplexed and saddened by this senseless and destructive act. However, we continued our ministries of loving and faithful service to God and our neighbors all year. Indeed, we expanded our programs! Our building has been full to overflowing even through our year of restoration.
On the first Sunday of Advent we will reopen our church interior with much festivity and celebration! This will mark the completion of phase one of our fire restoration. By the end of February, phases two and three will be complete. These phases include work on the narthex, facade and stained glass.
We all look forward to welcoming the newborn Christ into our hearts and our restored church this Christmas. You are invited to share in preparing for Christmas by attending advent services, prayerfully considering your 2014 pledge to St. Luke and St. Matthew and participating in the ongoing discernment of how God is calling us to serve our community in Brooklyn.
Pledge cards will be available in church throughout the Advent season and will be collected during Christmas worship. Join us in giving glory to God and ensuring the the church’s ministry will continue to expand through our dedicated service. I look forward to seeing you in church.
Faithfully,

You are cordially invited to join us for an evening of stories, music, food and drink to celebrate the launch of our community mural on the Vanderbilt side of the Church.

The mural – designed collaboratively by youth, alumni of Paul Robeson High School, and church members – will tell the story of a struggle to rise above adversity of all types: school closures, gentrification, floods, fires and more.

Hearing your favorite musician or band on an album is completely different from hearing them live in an intimate setting. On an album, producers have the opportunity to optimize the pitch, tempo, balance, even reverb and background noise before you hear the music. It’s great, but canned. Hear that music live, and…wow! It’s full of life and different every time. You experience the personality, breath, presence and nuances of the music more profoundly.

The same is true of experiencing Christian community at Camp DeWolfe. The stories are great, but it’s even better live!

I had the opportunity to serve as chaplain for the final days of camp this year. Arriving one week into a two week session, I encountered a group of campers and counselors who were undoubtedly a Christian community. It was unmistakable. The gifts of the spirit were overflowing. As the group welcomed me to preside at the Eucharist, I could feel the authenticity of relationship between all those gathered and the God who created us.

Throughout the week, we shared in well-planned and thoughtful activities. We prayed a lot. We sang, we swam, we sailed, we ate and ran and climbed and colored. We encountered God.

Our evening in chapel, several counselors put an a silent skit set to music. The skit powerfully depicted the struggle to stay close to God in the midst of life’s challenges and temptations.

Join me in the chapel by candlelight overlooking the Long Island Sound…At the beginning of the skit we see a girl crouching alone in the chapel. Slowly she arises and we see that she is animated by the love of God in Christ. She dances joyfully with Jesus. Effortlessly she separates from God and finds herself dancing with someone else . She is passed off to yet another teen who puts alcohol in her hand and brings her to a party. She is taken advantage of by kids who claim to be her friends. In the next scene we find her being bullied and eventually on her own having thoughts of suicide. All the while, Jesus is in the corner of the chapel trying to get her attention- even reaching for her. Determined, she rises to her feet and uses all her strength to connect with Jesus, but the temptations and bad influences grab at her clothing and hold her back. She struggles harder and suddenly she finds that Jesus is standing between her and the corrupting forces protecting her and giving her strength. She breathes deeply. At the close of the skit we find the girl dancing with God and giving thanks.

There is silence after the skit. As the candles flicker, many campers are in tears. We share in holy conversation about how challenging life can be and how alone we can all feel at times. We encourage one another and witness to the power of God’s love in our midst. We talk about where to find support when we need it. We pray together and then we head to our cabins.

This is just a peek at one hour in the life of camp DeWolfe. The arts and crafts and waterfront activities and high ropes course are fantastic, but if you think thats all there is, you must come and experience camp for yourself! Send your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews and neighbors. You’ve heard the stories, now come experience it live! You will leave transformed, renewed and dancing with God.

The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew has become an official faith partner of Habitat NYC.What this means is that we commit ourselves to prayer, volunteering of our time, advocacy, and fundraising.
Our first volunteer build will be at a Habitat project on Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn on Saturday April 27th from 9:15 to to 4:30 PM. Volunteers must be 16 or older, and no previous experience is required. Work is limited to the interior and finish work, leaving the exterior, wiring, plumbing to the professionals. Volunteer coordinators will be on site to supervise all work and to help direct as needed.
There will be other opportunities to help with advocacy and education where children can be involved as well. Habitat NYC will help with rebuilding home damaged by Hurricane Sandy in Staten Island in May, and it will be a great way for those who helped with Occupy Sandy relief see their work come full circle by help place these people back in their homes.
This is a great opportunity to get to know other members of our congregation, member of other faith organizations in the city pledge to help Habitat NYC, and to work along side the future owners who will be on site as the build “sweat equity” in their future homes.
There will be a sign up sheet at coffee hour and more information to come in the bulletin or see me. Thanks!
*******************
Seale “Brother” Ballenger
SHB6964@aol.com
201-360-7333

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Have you ever felt fruitless? Maybe you are feeling that way right now. Often when life feels fruitless we shut down emotionally and spiritual…maybe even physically. The parable of the Fig Tree offers another way…when you are feeling fruitless, spread some manure around and see what happens! Fertilize the parts of yourself that are often neglected. What sort of manure are you called to spread around in this season of repentance? May Lent be a fruitful season that leads you to abundant life now and tomorrow!

I have read numerous announcements about “Ashes-to-go” being offered throughout the Church this Ash Wednesday. I love worship in the streets! Some of my most memorable experiences preaching and worshiping with the people of God have been outdoors in public places. Faithful people often come together in public to pray, work and act together for the common good – to remember their mortality and their responsibility to care for one another and creation. This is the definition of liturgy, the work of the people. Dispensing ashes on street corners (even when accompanied by an explanatory handout with prayers, etc) lacks the intentionality and commitment of time necessary to experience the liturgy of Ash Wednesday in a significant way. I suppose “ashes-to-go” makes the church feel relevant, accessible and good about itself. It seems evangelistic and people-oriented in its performance, but I am afraid it has precisely the opposite effect. Ashes-to-go feeds into an anonymous consumerist approach to reality that says there is always an easier, faster, less costly, more convenient offer waiting in the wings. Ash Wednesday is an opportunity to take time out of our busy lives to commit to repentance and faithful living in community. The church should encourage the people of God to spend more time in prayer and contemplation, not a moment here or there on the subway platform. It is simply not enough. There is nothing convenient about Ash Wednesday- we are asked to do something out of the ordinary. Stop. Kneel. Pray. Remember that you are dust.

Just before Christmas Eve, The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew was set on fire by an arsonist. Damage to the building was extensive, but thanks be to God no one was hurt. We are in the process of rebuilding and the community has never been stronger in its resolve to reach out in love and service to those around us. Our mortality is looking us right in the face. The frailty of our institutions and our sacred spaces in as clear as day. This year we will be offering Ashes-to-stay, because we’re in no rush to move along as if what we are doing is more important than stopping to remember that we are dust. We will share in the liturgy for Ash Wednesday at 7am, noon and 7pm. The rest of the day the church will be open for meditation and reflection. The smell of smoke is still in the air. The ashes of the church fire will be mixed with the burnt palms from last Palm Sunday. We are all dust. To dust we shall return. Take a moment to smell the charred remnant of our common past before we rise together like a Phoenix to greet the Easter dawn. New life is ever before us. Today we smell smoke. Tomorrow, lilies!